1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a helmet worn to a user's head when a person rides on a motorcycle, and in particular to a shield mounting device for helmet used when a shield adapted to protect a front side of a helmet user is assembled to a body of a helmet.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a motorcycle or a race vehicle, a rider or co-rider wears a protection gear such as a helmet for preventing his head from an accident.
As shown in FIG. 1, the helmet includes a body B having an opening O in a front side of the helmet in a structure that a head of a user is fully covered, and a front side of a user's face is exposed, and a shield S adapted to protect a user's face exposed through the opening of the body B from wind or a foreign substance and formed of a transparent material and assembled to the body B. In particular, the shield S is assembled to a portion (the hatched portion of FIG. 1) of both sides of the body B by a mounting device. In the mounting device, the shield S assembled to the body B is rotated up and down, so that the opening O of the body B is opened or closed.
As an example of a conventional shield mounting device, according to the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 6,260,213 filed on Nov. 15, 1999, there is provided a shield connector. In the shield connector of the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 6,260,213, a base plate includes a circular guide, and an insertion and guiding portion communicating with the guide and is fixed to a helmet body. A rotation member is rotatably inserted into the guide of the base plate. A connection member is formed at an inner surface of the shield and is inserted into the rotation member through the insertion and guiding portion. In addition, a locker is installed rotatably along an outer surface of the guide and is adapted to lock the connection member inserted into the rotation member. However, according to the shield mounting device disclosed in the US patent application, in a state that the rotation member is inserted into the inner side of the guide of the base plate, and the locker is engaged to an outer surface of the guide, the connection member of the shield is slid into the inner side of the rotation member through the insertion and guiding portion of the base plate and then is assembled. In the above state, the locker is rotated, and the connection member is locked for thereby completing the assembling procedure of the shield. In the conventional art, the assembling procedure is complicated and inconvenience. Therefore, the productivity of the helmet is decreased. In addition, since the guide, the rotation member, the connection member and the locker have tight assembling sizes, each assembling operation is easily performed, but it is very difficult to disassemble the assembled parts. Therefore, there are many problems for separating the shield from the helmet for the purpose of cleaning or exchange.